Indian Army to start special selection centre at Kapurthala (Punjab)

In a huge respite to thousands of youngsters in the region who aspire to become defence officers, the Army authorities would start a special selection centre (North) from October 1st at Kapurthala in Punjab. The centre would provisionally function for around three years from Kapurthala military station and thereafter it would be shifted to state of art 200-acre campus at Ropar (near Chandigarh), which is at present under construction.

Indian Army to start special selection centre at Kapurthala (Punjab):

As of now, the young aspirants from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir had to visit special selection centres at Bhopal, Allahabad and Bangalore to appear before the Special Selection Board (SSB) that selects officers for the armed forces. SSB has five-day-long specialized selection process, which includes psychological tests, interview and various other personality tests to find officers like qualities in a youth.

It was a long pending demand of Punjab to open a selection centre in the state. The development is also significant because Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab are largest contributors to various officers' academies of the country every year.

Out of 1,237 cadets that passed out from the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun in 2014 and commissioned as an Army officer, 278 were from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh. It constitutes around 23% of the total cadets who became officers last year.

Formal intimation about the functioning of provisional selection centre (north) in Punjab was made by Lt Gen K J Singh, Army commander Western Command, on Sunday in a special meeting with Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal.

"The establishment of the selection centre at Kapurthala until completion of main campus at Ropar will fulfill the long pending aspirations of the youth of north India, who will now be able to undergo selection process in their own region and it will also alleviate their hardship," said Gen Singh.

Selection Centres

As of now there is one centre each in Allahabad, Bhopal, Bangalore to screen and select the officers for the Army and the Navy. One such selection centre is also located at Dehradun to select officers for the Air Force. Interviews conducted by these centres are called Special Selection Board (SSB) interviews. Candidates appearing before these centres are tested through a rigorous process, including various psychological and personality tests to find future officers to lead the Indian armed forces.

Facilitate the intake of officers:

The upcoming centre at Kapurthala would be country's fifth selection centre and would facilitate the intake of more officers into the armed forces, which is facing shortage of around 13,000 officers. According to official figures, the Army has shortage of around 10,500 officers, Navy has a shortage 1,400 and the Air Force has shortage of around 1,100 officers.

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